Nextsource Materials Inc. (TSX:NEXT, OTCQB:NSRCF) announced that it aiming to achieve the plant nameplate capacity of 17,000 tons per annum of SuperFlake graphite concentrate at its Molo Graphite Mine in southern Madagascar in July.
The company said it has progressed through debottlenecking and optimization activities at the facility, but the identification and rectification of underperforming equipment in the screening circuit have delayed when it expects to reach nameplate capacity.
The installation of the replacement equipment is expected to be concluded in April and ramp-up is set to continue until June.
On its revised schedule, NextSource said it expects its first commercial shipment and sale of SuperFlake concentrate under offtake agreements starting in June.
The company has achieved SuperFlake concentrate of more than 95% and it is being stockpiled at a third-party warehouse for shipment as a qualifying material to prospective customers.
It has completed the shipment of almost 60 tons of qualifying material to its battery anode facility technology partner for testing and conversion into coated, spheronized, purified graphite, it highlighted.
NextSource Materials is a battery materials development company based in Toronto, Canada that is intent on becoming a vertically integrated global supplier of battery materials through the mining and value-added processing of graphite and other materials.